Henderson Co. Sheriff’s Department takes new approach to make churches safer

HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — The recent church shooting in Middle Tennessee is just one example of gun violence that has affected our country.

“It’s sad that it’s came to this, but that’s just where we are in today’s society,” said Lt. Victor Stanford of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department.

So the sheriff’s department says they have come up with several ideas to prevent something like this from happening.

“Of course we’re increasing the patrols as much as we can with on-duty staff on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings,” Sheriff Brian Duke said.

But Sheriff Duke says with more than 80 churches in the county, it is impossible to have a presence at all of them. So he has decided to allow armed off-duty officers to drive their patrol cars and come in uniform to church.

“If any idiot decides to come in and shoot, there’s one gun there,” Lt. Stanford said. “So I’d say that’s a big deterrent right there.”

“If we can’t catch them, at least hopefully we can keep them out of this area and keep them out of a church that they’re thinking of trying to attack,” Sheriff Duke said.

The sheriff’s department says this past Sunday was the first time this plan has been brought into action, and they say they’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback.

“It got great reviews. They gave applause over it, and that was good to hear, because people want to feel safe,” Lt. Stanford said.

Sheriff Duke says there is no such thing as being too prepared.

“Each one of these churches, they never dreamed something like this would happen, and it’s so easy to say, ‘oh, this would never happen here.’ Well, that’s usually where it winds up happening,” Sheriff Duke said.

The sheriff’s department says they will also hold church security training classes on Nov. 28 and Nov. 30.

WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News also spoke with Gibson County Sheriff Paul Thomas who says they will hold a faith-based security seminar Dec. 2.